Jonny McFarlane and Scott McDermott discussed all of the latest Rangers news on the most recent edition of the Record Rangers podcast, and spent some time looking ahead to the Glasgow club’s upcoming Premiership clash with Aberdeen during the show.
The journalists discussed the likelihood that Alfredo Morelos will start Sunday’s Premiership clash during the podcast, with the £13.5m-rated centre-forward having been away with Colombia’s international team for their latest World Cup qualifiers.
Here is what McDermott had to say about the chances of Morelos starting for Rangers versus Aberdeen during this podcast:
“Players coming off international duty, you don’t know what kind of condition they’re in, how far they’ve travelled, I mean, Morelos would always be a starter, but he’s been away. He’d probably be your first pick in big games at centre-forward, but he’s obviously been away with Colombia.
“Somebody like Kemar Roofe has spent the whole time here, you know, hasn’t been away – should be fit, fresh, ready to go. Does [Steven Gerrard] look at the internationals and think, ‘I can leave Morelos out here because I’ve got Roofe ready and willing?’
“It’s hard to know with players coming back in – especially after these longer international breaks that we’re getting where you’re playing two and three games at a time. I think, all being well, he would still want to go with Morelos up top.”
Should Morelos start versus Aberdeen?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts on what McDermott had to say about the likelihood that Morelos will start versus Aberdeen…
Morelos didn’t play a great deal of football for Colombia in their most recent World Cup qualifiers. The 24-year-old striker was on the pitch for just 30 minutes in Colombia’s 3-0 loss to Uruguay last Friday, while he stayed on the bench for the entirety of his national side’s 6-1 loss to Ecuador on Tuesday.
Perhaps this relatively low amount of game time during the international break increases Morelos’ chances of starting for Steven Gerrard’s side in the Premiership leaders’ clash with third-placed Aberdeen this weekend.
However, he’ll have travelled back to Scotland from South America for this weekend’s game and maybe Gerrard will take that travel into account when selecting his team for Sunday’s fixture.
Perhaps that will lead to a different striker, such as Roofe, who hasn’t been away on international duty as McDermott said, starting ahead of Morelos.
McDermott spent some time praising Rangers’ depth during a different section of this podcast and they do have four other senior options for the centre-forward position, so perhaps this represents an opportunity for Gerrard to make use of his squad if Morelos is not going to be 100% ready for this weekend’s game.